American Campuses Threaten Students and the Nationby Alex Joffe and Asaf Romirowsky On American campuses since October 7th of 2023 Jewish students have been targeted with unprecedented levels of harassment and intimidation. Calls to “globalize the intifada” inside and outside classrooms, encampments where Zionists are barred by thug minders, countless demonstrations where Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthi flags are waved to cries to “from the river to the sea…. ” Jews and others have learned that a substantial portion of the student body and faculty, particularly at elite institutions, wishes for their extinction. As the school year approaches groups such as Columbia University’s “Apartheid Divest” coalition of anti-Israel and anti-American organizations have been frank about their fight for the “total eradication of Western civilization” and their upset at the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Their counterparts in cities around the world have been even more vocal in support of Hamas, vandalizing monuments with slogans like “Hamas is coming,” burning Israeli and American flags, clashing with police, and being promptly released by District Attorneys. But the problem goes further than the Jewish students’ or the public’s safety. New reports have shown that Iranian information operations have supported pro-Hamas protestors on Canadian campuses. And for almost a year reports have accumulated showing Iranian, Chinese, and Russian influence campaigns in cyberspace, notably through TikTok, vastly amplifying pro-Hamas messaging. Little appears to have been done except to publicize the problem. When Congress tried to force TikTok to find an American rather than Chinese owner, the app and its users went into high gear claiming this “ban” was done to support Israel. New warnings from Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines have now indicated direct if unspecified Iranian support for campus protestors. Ayatollah Khameini has praised the pro-Hamas protestors as a key part of the anti-Israel resistance. Here too it is unclear if the U.S. Government has taken any action. Other malign actors tied to the Communist Chinese Party like millionaire Neville Singham have been instrumental in funding anti-Israel street protests and perennial pro-Communist (and pro-Hamas) groups like Code Pink. Other rogue millionaires like Fergie Chambers have bailed out protestors and vandals from Palestine Action who have attacked Israeli owned factories in the U.S. During the spring semester universities pointed correctly to outside actors as participants in protests that disrupted campuses across the country. Media dismissed these as cosplaying radicals and District Attorneys dismissed the majority of charges. But the larger picture of street warfare and information warfare against Israel, Jews, and the U.S. itself cannot be ignored. This is particularly the case on the eve of the Democratic National Convention when pro-Hamas and anti-American groups demonstrated in Chicago. American campuses are an information battleground softened up by billions of dollars of Qatari, Chinese, Saudi, and Turkish dollars, careful influence buying that took place over three decades. The fact that institutions like Columbia and Harvard are comprised of foreign students, 55 percent and 26 percent, respectively shows another side of the influence peddling scam. This is not to say that all foreign students engage in violence against Jews and others, but many do not share American values of tolerance and pluralism. Of course, neither do many of their professors, who in their support for fighting “settler colonialism” and Western imperialism — read Israel and the US — have been forthright in wanting to see both demolished by any means necessary. Pro-Hamas forces trained in summer camps on protesting and have promised disruptions and even violence. The stage is set for an unpleasant semester. But the larger question is the national security threat posed by anti-Israel and anti-U.S. forces on campuses. These institutions are foundational to American security and prosperity, even as their values have moved further away from those accepted by the majority of Americans. To see campuses taken over is a disgrace, but to see them subverted to causes antithetical to American values is a strategic menace. Setting clear rules regarding the time, place, and manner of protests is an absolute necessity. Classrooms (compromised though many are by professors themselves) must be off-limits along with any form of harassment, including encampments that restrict free movement. Expelling violent protestors is another obvious but partial solution, as is closer vetting of prospective students. Restructuring departments that have become integral to the protestors, like Middle Eastern studies, is vastly harder and frankly almost impossible. It is necessary to continue to shine a bright light on how these and other departments — including others basic to American culture such as English, and critical to modern life, such as medicine — that have pledged their fealty to the eradication of Israel and the U.S., is necessary. Demanding institutions support not only values like free inquiry and free speech but basic conceptions of American life is equally necessary. The recent decision by the American Association of University Professors to endorse academic boycotts compromises academic integrity further still. With university donors in revolt, Jewish students avoiding the Ivy League, and academia as a whole starting to plunge over the demographic cliff, the future has now arrived. Only continued pressure will force academia to reform, which must include a rediscovery of the American values that have been dormant of the heart of the enterprise. |